Destruction, Dragons, Rulers, Monarchs, Mortals & Shadows

Before there was a Hunter King, there was a Dragon King. Before there was a Shadow, there was Destruction. In the beginning, there was only ruin. Born of the primordial clash between Creation’s flame and the abyss beyond stars, Antares, the Monarch of Destruction and King of the Wild Dragons, reigned as the supreme force of annihilation. But he was not alone. The Monarchs, forged in chaos, warred endlessly with the Rulers, beings of order and light, over the fate of countless worlds. Mortals were pawns, pieces, casualties. Yet time—even for immortals—is a scythe that spares none. This is the untold saga of Antares: from his rise among dragons to his brutal war with the Rulers, from his battles alongside and against fellow Monarchs, to his final confrontation with Sung Jinwoo, the Human who ascended to the Shadow Throne. Told in the mythic voice of Antares himself, this tale is one of pride, devastation, bitter eternity, and the slow unraveling of a being who once called himself invincible. But death is not the end. Not for Monarchs. Not for kings. When Jinwoo offers Antares a choice—perish into nothing, or live on in a new form to guide his son, Sung Suho, toward greatness—Antares must confront the one war he never waged: the one within himself. Destruction, Dragons, Monarchs, Rulers, Mortals, & Shadow is a mythic prequel to Solo Leveling, a sweeping epic that reimagines the origin and legacy of the universe’s most feared being.